


Grace

by taichara



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: Swordplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-02 12:39:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seiji has found himself called to an odd place for the oddest of reasons -- a duel, with Anubis -- and despite misgivings he agreed.  Sometimes, there are just more questions than there are answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grace

What manner of madness was it, Seiji wondered, to agree to such a thing as this?  
To meet one of the demon-generals for a duel -- a duel! -- along the shores of the mist-wreathed Omi Lake?

And at the depths of night, no less; though the moon hung silver-bright and dusted the wildwoods and the water's edge with pale halos, he still was uneasy.

To meet with darkness incarnate, armed with sharp wolf's-teeth and blackened honor, sharp mockery and sharper blade?

Still, and yet, it was an oath and a promise.  
No armor, no brazen displays of power; only the blades, and their own strength.

Madness; and yet, he had agreed.

And so he paced a slow cycle in the dewdropped grasses, sunlight hair pale in the soft ghost-light of a full-moon's night,  
jade and bronze silks catching the faint breeze.

Long still moments passed; and a flicker of pale movement rippled across his vision,  
caused him to raise the bright-forged blade warily.  
The wave of unearthly presence came, and passed him by; and then he could see the apparition.

White.

The mountain-wolf wore white.

Seiji stood a moment, then lowered his blade as his opponent approached in silence.  
No mocking words, no fang-filled demon's grin;  
only the blade hung over one shoulder, the pristine white robes and the emblems of an ancient family.

_Sasaki._  
 _He's -- he was -- Sasaki ...?_  
 _'... an honor's-duel on Omi's shores', he wanted ..._

 

 

_:: Date. ::_

 

The name flicks across his mind, and Seiji's attention is drawn back to the dark dead eyes,  
the darker hair swallowing the moon's light, old scar livid against dusky flesh.

 

_:: Shall we replay the past, Masamune's get? ::  
:: Time to put it all to rest. ::_

 

Anubis drew the great dark blade in a single sweep, held it still and waiting;  
and Seiji echoed the gesture with a single arc of light.

The mountain-wolf nodded once.

 

_:: Now it begins. ::_

 

The silent worlds hung in the air for the briefest of heartbeats;  
and the world rushed by in a wind of white and jade and singing steel.

 

The first sudden strike ended in a peal of ringing bells, as the two great blades slid past each other.  
And still there were no taunts, no design of darkness, no burning light.  
Only the black sky, the pale moon's-silver, and the sounds of rustling silks and crying blades.

Once and again they clashed, each turning the blood-keen death away or sweeping like a phantom from its path.

As the moments wore by, the arcs of glittering death grew faster;  
and darkness and light chased each other through the grasses and across the shoreline in their deadly dance.

Glimmers of gold and streamers of obsidian traced their paths through the nodding wild-grasses as they traded strike for strike,  
and the land itself felt the power of their passing;  
green giving way to sun-bleached gold or withered black with eternal night.

Still there was no flicker of emotion from the wolf in white.

Driven to the edge of the deathless depthless waters, Seiji struck heart-quick at his opponent,  
had a moment to be struck spellbound as a dusky hand snapped out to catch the very blade mid-arc and twist it back;  
flipped headlong into the water's shallow embrace, and came up gleaming bright,  
as the mountain-wolf lunged at him, still waters clotting brackish and black sprays in the force of Anubis' passing.

Seiji saw, whirled in place, and raced straight towards the deadly strike,  
the tainted waters purified sun-shining in his wake as he ran; for a moment he was gone,and Anubis bemused --

A heart-swift change alerted the mountain-wolf, as golden jade came to rest on the very edge of his blade,  
dragonfly-light, and pushed off again to land weightless and waiting on the shore, blade held high and waiting.

Another lunge, another; and it seemed that the land cried at their battle,  
the night and moon witness to their passion-play.

 

The moon eddied, the darkness gathered;  
and two great blades came gleaming like swift lances to end the dance --

\-- and still as statues dark and gold they became, reflections each of the other,  
with wind-keen death held poised at the other's unprotected face.

Seiji gazed in spellbound fascination as the shining tip of his shimmering blade grazed the livid cross on the dusky hollow cheek ...

... then felt a drop of crimson mar their stillness; one lone drop against the jade,  
as the dark sharp fang pressed lightly beneath one violet-petal eye.

Unmoving, the heartbeats passed, the life-thin trail leaving a single hair-fine trace of crimson down a moon-pale cheek.

And the mountain wolf faintly smiled.

 

_:: Date, are those tears of blood? ::_

 

Swift as night, the great blade was withdrawn;  
and Anubis stepped a predator's pace away, and bowed, and was gone from Omi.

 

Seiji waited in silence for the dawn, and wondered who had just been laid to rest ...


End file.
